Nostalgic

I'm feeling nostalgic today. Actually, I have been feeling this way all week...and for even longer than that. If I could, I'd go back 15 years in a heartbeat. I miss my boys being little. I miss the times we spent on the road together. I miss the companionship we shared as we traveled the highways and byways of America.

Ben and Mark

Mark will be heading back to the States soon, the first one to leave us. I'm already missing him...immensely. I'm sure that is why I feel this way. He and I started traveling together when he was 18 months old. By the time he was 10 he already logged more miles with me than most people drive in a lifetime. At 15, he was the best ground man I ever had as we worked together doing disaster relief, cleaning up after hurricanes, tornadoes and ice storms.

My other two boys are also growing and changing. Tall, lean, handsome, they come and go, busy with a life of their own. As it should be. Still, I can't help but remember the days and weeks we spent on the road together, right up until the day we left to come to Honduras. We always had a BBQ grill with us, usually our bikes too. Spending the weekend once a month in Colorado, biking the Platte river in Nebraska, stopping to play catch, working together loading cars on to the trailer, listening to audio books while we drove late into the night. Good, good memories!

Little America, WY

Mount Rushmore, SD

USS Alabama, Battleship Park, Mobile AL

Balancing Rock, Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO

Gettysburg Nat'l Park, Gettysburg, PA

Erie Canal, Somewhere in upstate NY

For years I lived with the fear that because I did not have a normal 8 to 5 job and wasn't at home every night that I was a bad father, even though at least one of my sons traveled with me all the time. Now that I do have a normal life I know that was not the case. Both the quality and the quantity time I spent with my sons is irreplaceable and a gift that few fathers are ever able to experience. I now count myself fortunate to have had such a rare opportunity.

Yanney Tower, Kearney, NE

Thomas, learning young.

Sharing lunch, somewhere in the USA

Me and my crew.

As I sit here tonight on our beautiful veranda, enjoying a relaxing Honduran summer evening, living the normal life, a huge part of me is longing for the abnormal and the unusual once again. I could go back to it. The boys could still travel with me and in a year and a half Mark will be old enough to driver interstate. I have to be honest, it's tempting at times, it really is.

But life is good here too. Normal, but good.

My veranda where I enjoy the early mornings and late afternoons.

As I went through our photos, walking down memory lane, there were so many I would have liked to share. Here are a couple more of my favorites. 

(All photos by Barbe)

Ben and Mark, truck schooling in the sleeper of our truck.

My three sons on the Jacksonville boardwalk.

Thomas.